SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 02, 2002
US eyeing Russian base in Vietnam
AFP SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 02, 2002
HANOI: Washington has begun negotiations with former foe Hanoi for access to a key Soviet Cold War naval base on Vietnam's central coast after the Russian lease expires in 2004, US officials said here Saturday.
The US military is seeking an "arrangement" that will allow it to use the base at Cam Ranh Bay for port calls and support for its operations in southeast Asia, Pacific commander Admiral Dennis Blair told reporters after talks here with Vietnamese officials.
But Washington is not looking to set up a permanent base here or anywhere else in southeast Asia, he insisted.
Viewed as one of the best natural harbours in the region, the Cam Ranh Bay base was ironically originally built by the Americans but lost to the then Soviet Union following the US humiliation in the Vietnam War.
Last year a cash-strapped Moscow announced that it would give up the base when its 25-year lease runs out in 2004 as it can no longer afford it.
"The status of Cam Ranh Bay has obviously now changed with the end of the Russian lease," said Blair.
"We are looking for places for our ships to visit. We are looking for various arrangements to suit our needs in this region ... It is important to us in this area of the world."
The launch of joint military operations with the Philippines on Thursday against Abu Sayyaf guerrillas has prompted many analysts to point to the gaping lack of US facilities in southeast Asia since Washington closed its Philippine bases in 1992.
But Blair insisted Washington had "no desire to have more permanent bases in the region."
"What we seek is a flexible set of arrangements so we can cooperate with countries in the region and get the job done when the necessity is there."
Blair said he had discussed access to Cam Ranh Bay with "several" top Vietnamese officials although the negotiations were still in their "early stages."
On Friday he met Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and Defence Minister Phan Van Tra.
US ambassador Raymond Burghardt said one possible arrangement would be for Vietnam to declare Cam Ranh Bay open to port calls by foreign warships, as it has already done with the ports of Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh City.
That arrangement would not be exclusive to the United States but would allow port calls by its warships.
"Vietnam has taken the position that its ports are open to ship visits on a multilateral basis," said Burghardt.
"Vietnam will have to decide whether to open Cam Ranh Bay to ship visits. If it is open to ship visits, it will be on the same basis as the two exisiting ports."
Having been at war with most countries in the region at some time or another over the past 60 years, Vietnam has been careful during its economic opening of the past decade to pursue relations with all countries equally.
In recent years, it has welcomed port calls by warships from an array of former foes, including most recently China with whom it fought a brief but bloody border war in 1979.
A key US military installation during the Vietnam War, Cam Ranh Bay became a key strategic pawn of the Cold War.
In its heyday in the early 1980s before Mikhail Gorbachev cut back Moscow's global role, the base served as a Soviet listening post covering most of the Far East and as a harbour for the Soviet nuclear fleet, according to intelligence sources.
But in recent years it has received few port calls from Russian ships and its intelligence role has greatly diminished, analysts said.
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